Death row inmate pleads to 1 murder, cleared of another (video)

A man already on death row took a plea deal on a second murder and had another charge dismissed related to a third death that occurred more than 20 years ago.

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Danny Robbie Hembree’s plea Tuesday comes three years and two months after he confessed to police of killing all three women.

A judge sentenced Hembree to more than 26 years in prison for the 2009 killing of Randi Dean Saldana.

But Hembree will be returning to North Carolina’s death row for the killing of 17-year-old Heather Marie Catterton, a murder a Gaston County jury convicted him of in 2011.

Prosecutors dismissed the murder charge Hembree faced in the 1992 cemetery slashing death of Deborah Ratchford.

Hembree, 51, faces no other charges in Gaston County.

The 2009 killings

A jury gave Hembree a death sentence in November 2011 for suffocating Catterton in October 2009 and leaving her partially nude body in a culvert in South Carolina. He said her killing came after a night of drugs and sex.

Saldana, 30, was found dead in York, S.C., just two weeks after Catterton’s body was discovered.

Hembree killed both women in his mother’s house then stored their bodies in the basement before discarding them. Saldana’s body was burned.

She did the same before Hembree was sentenced Tuesday. She read from a letter in court, her hands trembling. At one point Nations broke into tears and had to sit down.

Nations called Hembree a monster and a murderer, but said she forgave him for killing her only sister.

“Danny, we forgive you. I have to or else I will spend eternity in hell with you,” she said. “In my eyes you have no regard for human life.”

No other family members chose to speak. Danny also declined to address the court.

Both Defense attorney Ted Cummings and Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Hamlin said the plea arrangement was agreed upon to spare the families any further heartache.

Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said he accepted the plea deal because it ensured him that Hembree would die in prison.

“This sentence is a guarantee that he will stay in prison for the rest of his life,” said Bell.

In addition to the death penalty sentence, Hembree is serving more than a decade for armed robbery convictions in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties.

Bell said that if by some chance the death conviction is overturned in the future, Hembree will still serve 26 years for killing Saldana on top of the time for the robberies.

The unsolved case

Hembree made a habit of confessing to crimes. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have said so in court.

He used the tactic to distract detectives when he was picked up on other charges.

Bell said Hembree’s confession in the killing of 30-year-old Deborah Ratchford was a false claim. A second Gaston County man was charged with murder along with Hembree in the death of Ratchford, but Bell dismissed that charge within a few days.

Until Tuesday, Hembree still faced a first-degree murder charge in the case. Bell dismissed that charge as part of the plea arrangement, but Bell said it wasn’t a compromise.

“I dismissed it because I wasn’t going to prosecute it anyway,” Bell said. “Danny Hembree did not do that one. We investigated it, and he did not do it.”

Ratchford’s case remains unsolved.

The Gaston County woman’s body was found in a Gastonia cemetery in 1992. She died from cuts to her neck and chest.

Bell said he’s not dropping the matter just yet.

“The person that we think did it I have been told is dead, and I’m going to be checking into that to see if he is in fact deceased,” said Bell.

The unusual calm

Hembree’s trials, hearings and antics have made regional and national headlines.

“The first time he came into court he was acting like a rooster, cussing the judge and screaming and hollering,” said Bell.

He made multiple appearances in Gaston County Superior Court and granted The Gazette a jailhouse interview in the midst of his second murder trial.

Hembree wrote a taunting letter from death row and mailed it to the DA’s office and The Gazette, saying he was living a life of leisure, mocking the system writing, “Kill me if you can, suckers.”

The letter spurred one lawmaker to introduce legislation to remove TVs from death row, a bill that hasn’t come to fruition.

Hembree has said little during his most recent court appearances. He still shows up with a folder full of documents and often whispers to his attorney. But the fight seems to have left him, said Bell.

“Now that he’s been on death row for a year and a half, he appears more to be defeated. No more cussing. No more acting out in court. No more bravado,” said Bell. “I think he realized that that only hurt his family.”

During a recent hearing, a judge said that Hembree is having health issues.

Bell said that he’s heard Hembree has liver problems. Nations said she heard Hembree has cancer.

Hembree’s mother and sister came to court again Tuesday, as they have during both trials.

They had little to say about Hembree’s health or his decision to plead guilty.

“I maintain his innocence,” said Hembree’s sister, Kathy Ledbetter.

You can reach reporter Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817 and twitter.com/GazetteDiane.